CCblogs Network
Leading from the midst of the gathered people
The image of leadership often lifted up is the strong figure at the front of the pack, with an answer for every question.
Enter Satan
The Gospel of Luke turns the corner in Chapter 22. Instead of Judas being annoyed or disturbed about Jesus’ behavior—as in John—he is suddenly possessed.
Why we need the Philippians hymn on Palm Sunday
Whether you're in the pulpit or the pews, give some thought to this epistle this week.
Can these bones live?
I've been hearing stories of bones, in places that appear desolate and hopeless.
The single story
We need to sit with stories that resist easy categorization, stories that make us question the official narratives, no matter where we happen to fall in them.
“They brought to the Pharisees…”
Naming sexism as sexism is not a failure to engage diverse views.
Known to us in dirt and spit
The earthiness of Jesus' cure of the blind man in John 9 recalls all of the ways that God uses basic elements in creation and salvation.
I was blind and now I see
Lent demands that we use our old eyes in new ways.
Don't worry, give money
Organizations rating nonprofits appeal to the results-oriented. But is that what charity is about?
Foul-weather friends
There are people who can't take crisis, but there are others who only show up for that.
Go ahead and give up chocolate for Lent
It has become trendy to criticize the popular approach to 40-day fasts. But there's still a lot to be said for giving up Oreos or cake.
Prayer works—but not in the way so many suppose
I'm facing terminal cancer and receiving the prayers of many. Beyond the implicit problems, I've found ways to see what it means to ask God for healing.
Wilderness life
In my three-year sojourn with cancer, I’ve faced fears, limits, and questions of who I am now that I can't be a pastor in the ways I once was.
What can the church learn from a Starbucks barista?
His effect on the people gathered for their morning coffee dazzled me. It felt like we'd been transformed into better versions of ourselves.
The flourishing church
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more popular word in evangelical circles today than flourishing. But are the churches described that way avoiding complexity?
What preachers get wrong and Peter gets right about the Transfiguration
If Peter is wrong in his response to his mountaintop spiritual experience—as so many sermons suggest—why doesn’t Jesus rebuke him?
Perfection really is overrated
It is the ultimate in human foolishness when we think we need to be perfect in order to earn God’s love or anyone else’s.
Hammer my heart
A hazard of being a pastor is that you can speak and write endlessly about God and rarely open yourself to be encountered by God.
What the Johnson Amendment really prevents churches from doing
There are constitutional arguments against allowing nonprofits—including congregations—to endorse political candidates. But the religious one is stronger.
Mary, Dorothy, Katherine, and scripture's hidden figures
Like the stories of African-American women mathematicians at NASA, our faith's heritage reminds us to look for the people behind the scenes.